One of the most common warning signs you’ll notice if your cellphone has been tapped is, hearing a strange sound like clicking sounds or a static noise during a phone call. Scouring the Internet, you’ll find various tips on how to know if your phone is tapped.
Apart from the government, mobile phones can be monitored by other people such as your boss, hackers, your business partners, and your ex-partner. To solve the conundrum, today’s tutorial on how to know if your Phone is tapped comes in handy.
Once you detect your Android is being monitored, we’ve also explained different methods on how to get off the radar of the party keeping an eye on you.
How to tell if your phone is tapped
There are various tell-tale signs you’ll notice if your mobile device is infected with spyware tapping your calls or monitoring your activity. Here’s how to know if your phone is tapped:
Unusual or Strange Background Noise
When on a voice call, if you hear some strange background noise that sounds like a pulsating static or high-pitched humming or something similar, you may have malicious apps on your Android keeping tabs on your calls.
Other unusual sounds to look out for include clicking, beeping, or static sounds when not on a phone call.
While there could be other causes of these unusual sounds, once you hear anything like them and notice one or more of the other signs below, it means your activity on the phone is being monitored.
Your phone’s battery gets drained or hot often
If your Android has been infected with spyware that taps your voice calls and/or keeps an eye on your activity, it might make the battery feel hot to the touch or drain a lot faster.
This is the procedure to determine the specific apps consuming the highest battery on your Android: Settings > Battery Lab > Battery usage.
The steps may be slightly different on your smartphone model, but you can check the battery usage settings generally under Settings.
Increased Internet Data Usage and Higher Phone Bills
One of the first signs you’ll notice if someone is monitoring your cellphone is a sudden increase in your data usage.
Also, you could discover your phone bills have risen. The surge in data usage — and consequently your phone bills — is because a majority of the malicious apps that monitor activities on Android devices use the Internet for uploading your data.
Therefore, when you suspect your handset is being monitored, simply check your data usage to confirm if there’s any spyware eating up your data in the background.
For TECNO, Infinix, and itel models, this procedure works for checking data usage on Android: Settings > SIM card and mobile network > Data settings and Data usage. Here, you can view the data usage for mobile data and Wi-Fi.
Your phone takes a long time to shut down
Smartphones that are being monitored use a longer than usual time to shut down. This is another tip on how to know if your phone is tapped.
To check if your phone is being monitored by your employer, business partner, hackers, and others, these are some of the tips that can help you out.
What to do if your phone is tapped
When you’ve detected the sign(s) that your phone is being monitored, the next thing is to carry out the steps below to fix the issue:
Check for a spy app installed on your Android without your knowledge. Carry out this procedure to check for such spyware: Settings > App management.
Here, go through all the apps on your phone to know if there’s anything suspicious, focusing on keywords such as malware, stealth, spy, and others.
Make sure the Install from unknown sources option is disabled. If the setting is enabled, you’ll be able to install apps from all sources — whether safe or not. This means apps that aren’t verified by the Play Store or the App Store can gain access to your smartphone.
If the feature is enabled without your knowledge, it becomes possible for anyone to install spyware on the device without your consent.
These are the steps to disable the Install from unknown sources option on Android: Settings > App management > Special app access > Install from unknown sources. Then, toggle the slider to OFF.
While this technique works effectively against less sophisticated spy apps, the more robust ones will find a way to bypass this kind of mobile security.
Switch on airplane mode.
To stop the tapping device of a hacker monitoring your phone or kill the operations of similar third-party apps, simply enable airplane mode on your smartphone. This technique can be implemented quickly to get rid of the spy apps or reset your handset.
Dial certain numbers if your mobile device is being monitored or is tapped. You can dial *#06# to check your phone’s IMEI number. To reveal whether spyware on your handset has been diverting phone calls, text messages, and data, dial *#21#. This code will help you clear the settings.
If your smartphone is tapped and a spy app is preventing your phone calls, dial *#62# to check for redirections and then ##002# to remove such redirections.
By dialing *#67#, you’ll be alerted of phone calls and text messages that are diverted to specific other numbers when you decline a call or are on another line.
When you’ve applied the tips on knowing if your phone is tapped and have carried out some of the steps above to eliminate the threat, you can now use your smartphone with peace of mind.
Final Thoughts
One of the key things to remember when you want to learn how to know if your phone is tapped is to look out for some signs such as unusual background noise during a phone call, a surge in data usage, increased battery usage, and others.
When you’ve confirmed your phone calls and activity on the handset are being monitored, you can carry out some of the steps above to get off the radar of the spyware.
Other related topic: How to Track a Phone in Kenya
